


love songs

by mistyheartrbs



Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Minor Ayase Eli/Toujou Nozomi, One-Sided Takami Chika/Watanabe You, Romeo and Juliet References, Songwriting, Unrequited Crush, i'm sorry you i just live for mild angst, whew that was a lot of tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-12 10:01:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11734728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mistyheartrbs/pseuds/mistyheartrbs
Summary: Chika and Riko write a song. Something akin to chaos, as well as several heart-to-hearts, occurs.





	love songs

**Author's Note:**

> i love writing the aqours dynamics because there are so many possibilities but also writing nine people at the same time is hell
> 
> i wrote this to sorta celebrate the first teaser for s2 coming out! god i'm so excited to cry profusely over these nerds every week during the fall anime season

"Give me your real, honest opinion, Chika-chan." 

Chika had not expected the day to start the way it did, with Riko blocking the entrance to the school's roof with sheet music crunched in her hand. 

"About what?" 

"Don't sugarcoat it, don't . . . don't react the way you usually do, cheering everybody on." Riko rubbed her forehead as if she had a headache. "I need the brutal truth right now. I need you to talk me out of this." 

"Riko-chan, I seriously have no idea what you're talking about." She did, in a way - the notes on the paper gave at least a hint - but Chika wasn't worried about it in the slightest. 

"The song, maybe we should work on it more or something? You know, lots of idol groups delay their new releases to polish things, maybe we could do that?" 

"I helped you work on it, Riko-chan. It's really good." Chika wondered if she should hold Riko's hands in that moment - relax the tense muscles that threatened to pop her blue veins, interlock their fingers so that the sheet music would fall to the ground - but decided against it.

"You say that a lot, eventually it starts to sound like you're crying wo-"

"That's because it's true!" Chika balled her fists so tightly that she could feel her nails digging into the soft skin of her palms. "It's a good song. I wouldn't be saying that if it wasn't true." 

***

Chika seemed to droop as she spoke, and Riko backed away like she might deflate entirely if she stayed in the same place for much longer. 

_Tell her why,_ one part of her mind whispered. 

_Don't tell her,_ the other part hissed, and Chika had stopped meeting her gaze. 

"It's because-" 

"I'm not a little kid, you know. I'm not a really great leader, either." Chika scuffed her sneaker on some gravel that had made its way into the stairwell once upon a time. "I'm also not going to send you out there with something I didn't support one hundred percent, Riko-chan." Riko's thoughts screeched to a halt. "And if you still don't wanna do it? We'll save the song for another day, or I'll pretend it was my idea so that you don't have to deal with it!" 

"You know, you're a good person." _That was very bad flirting. Good going, Sakurauchi._ "Let's . . . let's go." Riko let the doubt still simmering in her mind fade away when she walked through the door with Chika's arm looped through her own. She tried to ignore You's pained smile directed at the both of them. 

"It took you long enough," Yoshiko huffed, fanning herself with the edges of her cape. Riko wondered how she didn't pass out right there on the spot. "The . . . fires . . . of hell . . . wait for nobody . . . Zuramaru, do you have any more of those water bottles?" 

"I've got you." Kanan dug her muscled arm into her cooler, tossing an icy water bottle in Yoshiko's general direction. It hit her squarely in the eye. Ruby let out a shriek. 

"I'm . . . fine," Yoshiko whimpered out, holding her eye with one hand while opening the water with the other. "The fallen angel Yohane feels no pain, after all!" 

"The _fallen angel Yohane_ should go to the nurse's office to get an ice pack," Dia huffed. "It wouldn't reflect well on the School Idol Club if one of its members ended up with a concussion." 

"It's just a _water bottle."_ Dia sent her another glare. "Okay, okay! I shall return from my trip to the underworld shortly." Flicking her cape one last time, Yoshiko stalked down the stairs. 

"At least she won't faint from the heat, zura," Hanamaru said. Riko didn't miss the way her gaze lingered on Yoshiko's retreating figure for just a moment longer than necessary. 

"Ah, _don't worry about it!"_ Mari chirped, in English, as she rocked back and forth in her seat. "Yocchan's a strong girl. Anyway, anyway, weren't you two going to tell us something?" She pointed to Chika and Riko with the decisiveness of a lawmaker with their client on death row, smirking just slightly. Riko stiffened, and she supposed that Chika must've been able to feel the sudden rigidity in her body for how gently she turned to her. 

"We, erm, we wrote a song. Myself and Chika-chan, that is." Riko hoped the pages wouldn't end up drenched in her own sweat. "I made copies of the lyrics and the sheet music, if any of you want to take a look."

"It's amazing!" Chika butted in. Riko could feel her cheeks turning red as she passed out the papers and the other seven (six, at the moment - Hanamaru had volunteered to hold onto Yoshiko's while she recuperated in the nurse's office) members read over it with the occasional mutter or raised eyebrow. 

"It's a love song!" Ruby squeaked. "It's . . . it's a love song!" 

"Ah, it sure is." Mari's expression slowly turned to one of a sinister mastermind as her lips curled into a grin. "You two wouldn't happen to have a _secret lover,_ hmm?" 

"You just make it sound worse when you say that bit in English," You said - the first time she'd spoken that afternoon. Riko hoped she was just imagining You's fingers clenching the paper until it crinkled. Dia sat up. 

"You know, μ's had a few love songs of their own," she began. Kanan rolled her eyes good-naturedly. 

"Here we go again," she sighed. 

"There were theories, of course, lots of them - you can't be the world's best idol group without quite a few theories following you around, even when you're our age, but the most prominent one featured the belief that Eli Ayase and Nozomi Tojou were romantically involved, and that some of the love songs performed by μ's were written to portray their relationship." Dia gestured, animated, as she talked, while Ruby and Hanamaru sat in rapt attention. 

"So we're following in their footsteps?" Chika was rocking back and forth on her heels while Riko just waited for the scene in front of her to crumble. 

"In a way, yes." 

"Dia, you can't just misdirect the conversation like that!" Mari chided. "We were about to find out who their _secret lovers_ were!" 

" _Please_ stop saying 'secret lovers.'" You pulled her knees close to her chest, cap pulled over her eyes. 

"What was that about secret lovers?" Yoshiko - now holding an ice pack to her bruised eye with her cape noticeably absent - leaned against the bannister. 

"Shouldn't you still be resting?" Kanan asked. 

"A black eye and heat stroke can't stop the fallen angel Yohane! The fires of hell are infinitely hotter and more painful!" Clearing her throat, she added, "-and the nurse said I was actually fine. Anyway, what's going on?" 

"Chika and Riko wrote a love song!" Hanamaru eagerly handed her the papers. "Isn't it romantic? It's like the old love novels I still read sometimes."

"A forbidden-"

"Nothing's forbidden or ancient or secret, okay?" Riko blurted out. God, she was probably going to be the one to have a heat stroke next. "It's just . . . it's just a song." 

"It's a nice song," You forced out, her voice clipped and fake. "When are we going to perform it?" 

***

Chika knew, of course, that You was jealous, plain and simple. It was easy for anyone to see, but she didn't dare say anything to her - not with all nine of them gathered here on this roof, not on this sweaty, sleepy day with her arm linked with Riko's while ink from a love song bled onto everyone's fingers. 

"Oh, well, I really hadn't thought that far . . ." Riko was floundering, twiddling her thumbs nervously. "Shouldn't we at least try singing it or making up some kind of, erm, choreography first? Or a theme for the . . . the . . ." Yoshiko raised an expectant eyebrow. _Costumes_ was on the tip of her tongue, Chika figured, but You's uncomfortable demeanor would've taken away any desire to add that. ". . . song?" Riko finished lamely.

"A theme?" Ruby repeated. 

"Yeah!" Chika gave Riko a comforting squeeze on the arm before breaking out into what could only be described as complete and utter bullshitting. "You know, what they want to see, what they want to hear, how we could make those all connect! The lyrics, the melody, what's connecting them? Music, that's what's connecting them, and us . . . music." 

"What's she talking about?" Kanan whispered. 

"You've got me," Mari whispered back. "Still, they're a little bit like how we were, hmm? Back when we were younger kids?" 

"Still trying to figure out what we were even doing?" Kanan chuckled softly, no longer trying to quiet her voice - Chika was still spewing nonsense with her best efforts. "Fooling around in the walk-in closets of your giant mansion?" 

"We only did that once!" Mari swatted Kanan's knee. "The maids would have found us, I know. It's like they have _laser vision._ We moved to your dive shop after that!" 

"Ah, yeah, it was really fun making out while the creepy scuba masks watched us."

"Wasn't it?" Mari's face took on a dreamy expression, closing her eyes as if reliving the memory. 

"I'm pretty sure that's why my dad stopped stocking them. They'd seen too much." 

". . . and so we have to make a theme that connects this song to the audience!" Chika finished. "I have no idea what I just said," she added to the side, leaning in to Riko's ear. "I was listening to Kanan and Mari." 

"A theme, huh?" You took out a notebook from her bag, scribbling down a few ideas. Yoshiko and Hanamaru shared a glance. 

_"Romeo and Juliet!"_ they blurted out at the same time. 

"What?" 

"The age-old story of secret lovers, torn apart by their families and led away to tragedy!" Hanamaru clutched her chest like her heart would fall out if she didn't. 

"Star-crossed and painful, the greatest love story ever told!" Yoshiko plucked the feather from her hair and held it up. "Oh, it's brilliant!" 

"Don't they both die at the end?" Chika piped up. 

"Yep." You didn't look up from her notebook, writing and drawing only to scratch things out two seconds later.

"That could work, though." Dia squinted, as if looking for something in the distance. "Choreography-wise, it might be interesting." 

"I don't think they remember the 'secret lovers' thing anymore," Chika whispered. Riko nodded slightly. 

"Reds and blues for the costumes, maybe?" You mused, looking like someone who wasn't about to rip out the rest of the group's throats for the first time that day. It was comforting, at least to Chika - Riko simply stared blankly ahead. "You two would be in the center, obviously, but-" 

"The _center?"_ Riko yelped. 

"Is there a problem with that?" Mari asked, now comfortably nestled against Kanan. "Because, you know, we'd be more than happy to take on that role if you don't want to, Riko." 

"Who'd be the other one?" Ruby asked, peering over You's shoulder. 

"Who do you think?" Mari shoved both her pointer fingers in Kanan's direction. "I know what it's like." Slowly standing up and crossing the roof to stand closer to the two younger girls, she put a hand on each of their shoulders. "The _uncertainty_ of it all, oh, the fears. There's not much to be afraid of, at least not here - among all of us, but I know." 

"What does this have to do with the song?" Yoshiko asked. 

"I remember it like it was yesterday." Mari leaned against the railing, hands now clasped together. "It took me a long time to figure it out - _forever,_ really - but I think it was sometime after I arrived overseas." Kanan and Dia both looked away guiltily. "Things started to become clear once I was so far away. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and all that. Oh, I was such a sappy romantic. Writing little love poems in the borders of my homework, thinking every time I looked out to the ocean, eating up bad songs like they were candy." 

"Mari?" Chika prodded her slightly, but she took no notice. You looked up from her drawings.

"What changed?" Mari shrugged. 

"I realized that it had never just been . . . fooling around, if you would." Mari's eyes grew cloudy just as Dia clapped her hands over Ruby's ears with her mouth in an offended _O_ shape, eliciting a laugh from the rest and doing at least something about how heavy the atmosphere had grown. Mari took another breath and started again. "I still couldn't talk to her - you know, miscommunications, they're horrendous, and I hate to think of how things could've turned out so differently if we'd just talked - but I knew enough." 

"You never told me any of this," Kanan murmured. From where she stood, Chika could see that she was about to cry. 

"You knew, though, didn't you?" Gone was Mari's usual air of bravado, her jokes and sprinklings of English words, as her gaze dropped to the ground. "When we talked in the classroom?" 

"I did." 

"I figured it wouldn't do much good to say it all to you - I didn't want to hurt you, and of course there were always the fears that stopped me from saying much." Mari blinked. "So much for that now, hmm? Ha." It was the most uncomfortable laugh that Chika had ever heard. 

"You two really were Romeo and Juliet, huh, zura?" Hanamaru tilted her head, curious, as Mari crossed back to her usual spot next to Kanan. "Well, your families weren't warring, but you missed each other because you didn't talk, and you almost lost each other, zura. That sounds like the definition of star-crossed." 

"I also had a balcony," Mari offered. Hanamaru's eyes lit up. 

"Exactly!" 

"How many nights did I wait out there for you, throwing down a rope because the doors were locked?" 

"Too many," Kanan laughed. "I got the _worst_ rope burn, you have no idea." 

"Love hurts," Riko said, promptly covering her mouth when she'd realized what she said. "Ah, I mean, it must've hurt . . . your hands . . . yeah." 

"You don't have to treat me like I'm made of glass." Kanan twirled the ends of her ponytail thoughtfully. "I'm fine, now. We're fine." They looked like an old married couple, with Mari leaning on Kanan's tanned shoulder as their fingers locked. 

"I think I've got a good idea of the costumes." You held up the notebook, pushing up the bridge of her cap as she did so. "We'd need more red fabric than I have right now, and I'm not really sure how we'd do the ruffles, but it's an okay start." 

***

"They look great, You-chan!" Chika chirped, bounding over in a single stride. You turned pink, her gaze flitting from Chika to the notebook to Chika again. Riko stood off to the side, uncomfortable as a person could be. "Don't they?" 

"They do," Riko said. _It could topple at any moment,_ she thought as the sheet music sat in everyone's laps, as Kanan and Mari held each other like the world was ending, as You stammered under Chika's naive stare. 

"I drew them with you and Riko-" she pointed the pencil in Riko's direction upon saying her name "-in mind, but if Kanan and Mari wanted to do it instead, it wouldn't be a problem." 

"What do you two think?" Mari stood up again, Kanan at her side this time as she regarded them curiously. "It _is_ your song, after all, shouldn't you be the ones to decide?" 

"Don't scare them," Kanan whispered, but there was lightness in her voice. Lightness and some kind of wistfulness - regret, Riko thought. It scared her. "But she's right. It's your choice in the end." 

"What do you think, Riko-chan?" Chika asked. Riko took a shuddering breath, taking another look at the scene - Hanamaru chiding Yoshiko for taking off her ice pack while Ruby tried to intervene, You still looking at Chika like she was the world, Dia smiling like a proud mother, and the two girls in front of her, pressed close together and looking like they never wanted to let go. 

"I think . . ." Riko began slowly, deliberately, choosing each word with care. "I think that we should let them be the centers. We'll have more time to write love songs, I'm sure." 

"You're positive about this?" Kanan tilted her head to the side in concern. "I mean, this is about the two of you, isn't it? If this is just some kind of pity thing, then-" 

"It's not!" Riko was surprised at the loudness of her own voice - enough to make eight pairs of eyes lock onto her. "It's . . . it's not. We _did_ write this song together, it was about . . . us." She looked to Chika, who gave her a reassuring smile. "But, it shouldn't just be for us. I think you and Mari deserve something like this, after everything." 

"Befitting for us, the _secret lovers_ all along," Mari breathed. "You're a good girl, Riko." 

"I try." 

"So, on the choreography," Dia interjected, coming to stand. "I thought that maybe it could go here, and then here - I'll draw it out later, maybe I could pull up some old μ's videos on the web? Their love songs always had the best dances to go with them." 

"Shouldn't we try singing it first?" Yoshiko said, the ice pack now tied around her head like an eyepatch.

" _Great idea,_ Yocchan! Okay, and a one, and a two, and a _one two three four!"_

They began, and the world seemed to spin a little gentler.

**Author's Note:**

> this became a lot more kanamari-centric than i intended. oh well.


End file.
